Tuesday, July 12, 2011

It’s the Good Old Summer Time!

It's the Good Old Summer Time!

What have you been doing to keep cool? I have been remembering the days before air conditioning and ice makers. Sue ( on the left) and I filled up the ice trays, enjoyed long slices of watermelon, and when all else failed, we went to the creek. Please come and enjoy a salad supper, iced tea, some good old fashioned summer memories, and the best gossip in town! Oh, yes, if you bring your swimsuit, I'll turn on the sprinkler!

July 29, 2011

6:30 PM Central Lightning Bug Time

Graystone Cottage

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This is my latest invitation for my Women's Night Out group. I have used an old photo taken by my brother. This creek is near my childhood home. It was quite a trek to creep down the walls of the deep ravine to Lost Creek, but the cool air and sounds of the running water and the chorus of bird song are a permanent and glorious page in my book of memories.

A great photo and a great way to stay cool. I certainly don't envy you the heat and humidity of your summer days. The few days of that sort that we DO get in the UK I usually close all the blinds and curtains and stay indoors. Going to the creek would be much more fun thoigh:)

That's a beautiful reminder of the creek where we swam as children. Without air conditioning, we had to make other arrangements like getting used to the heat and electric fans. That is my parents' cue to say they didn't even have electricity for fans. This summer I will enjoy the air conditioning and drink my coffee.

About Me

Recreational scholar, former high school and junior college English teacher. Animal lover (especially horses, dogs, and people), live in the South, sometimes poet and essayist...
"Ireland, Scotland, Britain, and Wales...I can hear those ancient voices calling..."
Van Morrison from Celtic Heartbeat

July

Cooler than average...

Welcome Spring!

Windy & Cold

Wild Hare

Colder than ever!

Heart & Cold

Gracie Girl

...miss you every day

Three ripe bananas...

and here you are!

Welcome all...

I'm so glad you stopped by. Tap on the back door, then step into The Keeping Room where the teapot is filled and under its cozy. Cup and saucer or mug? Milk and sugar? Grasmere Gingerbread? Now that I have finally posted the recipe, perhaps you can have a try and find out why it is so popular here!

Here is what I often call Crumbly Gingerbread

I found the recipe on a postcard I sent home to a friend when I visited Grasmere in 1986. This is very close to the gingerbread sold at St. Oswald's church there in Grasmere. This is marvelous with your hot tea. The real secret is adding the sugar at the very last-not blending it with the margerine. I use either a fork or pastry blender to "rub" in the margarine with flour and oats. I have copied it as it appeared on the postcard and added my American interpretation of measurements for certain ingredients.

Set oven to 325 degrees or Mark 3. Well grease a shallow tin 14" by 9". Put flour, oats, bicarbonate of soda, cream of tartar, and ginger in a bowl. Add the margarine cut into small pieces. Rub in well with fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in sugar. Put into tin and press down firmly with a floured fork. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes until pale brown. Cut into squares whilst warm and leave in tin until completely cold. Keeps well in airtight tin.

Hunter / Gatherer

Joe at Rock Creek

Old North from an Angle

A patch of green with gray

War Horse

the movie

Looking for Crumbs

by Sir Edwin Kandseer

Nice work...

Sir Edwin Landseer

A Gift Horse

Thank you, dear Willow!

One of these days...

Paul Henry

from Sleeping Children

Vasily Perov 1870

The Secret Heart

Here is my Valentine to every parent who remembers looking on a sleeping child...and lingering in the moment....Enjoy & linger,Firelightby Robert P. Tristram Coffin

Across the years he could recall
His father one way best of all.
In the stillest hour of night
The boy awakened to a light.

Half in dreams, he saw his sire
With his great hands full of fire.
The man had struck a match to see
If his son slept peacefully.

He held his palms each side the spark
His love had kindled in the dark.
His two hands were curved apart
In the semblance of a heart.

He wore, it seemed to his small son,
A bare heart on his hidden one,
A heart that gave out such a glow
No son awake could bear to know.

It showed a look upon a face
Too tender for the day to trace.
One instant, it lit all about,
And then the secret heart went out.

But it shone long enough for one
To know that hands held up the sun.

A Splendid Time for All

This year....A Masque

Come to the ball and

Dance the night away!

Gracie

Sleepy head!

Autumn

Raking Maple leaves

Rescue Me!

What a face!

Making himself at home...

Teddy in the kitchen

"Snow was general...

all over Ireland..."

Monroe County Courthouse Museum

a pocket watch...details to follow...

Each reader signed the two books we used

which were later sold in a silent auction.

Published July 11, 1960

Click on book to go to Monroeville, AL

"...Atticus reached out and massaged Jem's hair,

his one gesture of affection." Nancy - Ch 15

Traditional Lakeland Grasmere Gingerbread

"The world is too much with us"...bring on the gingerbread!

My kind of vacation...

& a number to call!

"They tell us about the things that have made us and keep us human."

"The poet's work is putting silence around everything worth remembering." Natalie Merchant (Click on photo to see how !)

June 18, 1940: Churchill in his finest hour

Click on photo & read about this famous speech and others.

Wise Words from Winston

"you can count on the Americans to do the right thing --- after they have tried everything else!"

A Portrait by Country Girl

I found the perfect frame!

Eddi Reader

The Songs of Bobbie Burns

Having a Burns Dinner...

Cameron Weathered Hunting is the one we love to wear!

January 20th

Happy Birthday

Silhouette

Bare Pecan Branches

First Footer

on the plantation 1/1/10

Summer Memories

Happily Lost at Lost Creek

Niece Nancy

...a beauty inside & out

Thank you, Rebecca!

My Christmas cup runneth over!

Holiday Hound

Fritz & Mom

Robert Duncan Studios: click door knob to visit site!

At the Back Door

Rackham's Sleepy Hollow

'Tis sweet to hear the watch-dog's honest bark

Bay deep mouthed welcome as we draw near home...'Tis sweet to know an eye will mark our coming and look brighter when we come."

Gracie the Wonder Dog

Soul Cake

The streets are very dirty,Me shoes are very thin.I have little pocket To put a penny in.If you haven't got a penny,A ha' penny will do.If you haven't got a ha'penny,Then God bless you!

a warm corner

of the keeping room

Happy Birthday November 11

to my beautiful god daughter!

A classic pony book

Click on photo to learn more about the book and author

A Flower Girl

Burton's Sleepy Hollow

What are you doing for Fall Break?

Put on your dancing shoes ladies & gentlemen!

Atticus Finch with Tom Robinson

My own little pumpkin...

Born on October 31

Speaking of WWII...click photo for a discussion of the film

from the directors of I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING

Girl Shy

Click photo for video link!

Back to School...

The Pledge by Robert Duncan

John Adams

by David McCullough

Shakespeare Sharp Cookie

Derrick knows his quotes!

T. S. Eliot Trivia

Willow named the town & church!

The Fairy Dance

Arthur Rackham

A good book for summer...

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (click on bookcover for an interview with the author) Thank you Cathy B. for this suggestion!

Alabama Weather Report:

Cloudy with a chance of toads and hail stones! Yes, we have had both this week!

May 20th is the 400th Anniversary of the Publication of Shakespeare's Sonnets: Sonnet 116

Let me not to the marriage of true mindsAdmit impediments. Love is not loveWhich alters when it alteration finds,Or bends with the remover to remove:O, no! It is an ever fixed mark,That looks on tempests and is never shaken;It is the star to every wandering bark,Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeksWithin his bending sickle's compass come;Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,But bears it out even to the edge of doom.If this be error and upon me proved,I never writ, nor no man ever loved.William Shakespeare

Mountain Laurel

Just beginnig to open

Thank you, Virginia, for this award & for all the great images from Birmingham!

Click on this award to see daily photos from my hometown!

Sue, 3rd grade

December 1945 - April 2001

Thank you, Sir Derrick of Melrose!

Click on this award and go directly to Scotland's border country, great images, and original poetry!

Advice from Goethe

"One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words. "

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

For nearly 25 years, I have tried to follow his advice. I can recommend it!

Fairy Tale: A True Story

GOETHE

by Tischbein

Honeysuckle

In Marlene's Garden

Thank you, Lady Cait O'Connor!

My very first award!

Poetry Books I've Pulled Down From the Shelf

Robert Bly

Emily Dickinson

an essential

Essays for this summer...

Of Women and Horses

Quotes about Dogs...

"Some of my best leading men have been dogs and horses." Elizabeth Taylor

Quotes about Dogs

"love me, love my dog." Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

Quotes about Dogs...& Happy Birthday 4/18 to Gracie Lou Who!

"A heart beat, at my feet." Edith Wharton

Beau, our first dog

"You think dogs will not be in heaven? I tell you they will be there long before any of us." Robert Louis Stevenson